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  <p class="align-right"><strong>directive</strong></p>
<section id="include-1">
<span id="directives-include-1"></span><span id="index-0"></span><h1><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">include/1</span></code><a class="headerlink" href="#include-1" title="Link to this heading"></a></h1>
<section id="description">
<h2>Description<a class="headerlink" href="#description" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<div class="highlight-logtalk notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>include(<span class="nv">File</span>)
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Includes a file contents, which must be valid terms, at the place of
occurrence of the directive. The file can be specified as a relative
path, an absolute path, or using <a class="reference internal" href="../../glossary.html#term-library-notation"><span class="xref std std-term">library notation</span></a> and is expanded
as a source file name. Relative paths are interpreted as relative to the
path of the file containing the directive. The file extension is optional
(the recognized Logtalk and Prolog file extensions are defined in the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../glossary.html#term-adapter-file"><span class="xref std std-term">backend adapter files</span></a>).</p>
<p>When using the <a class="reference internal" href="../../userman/reflection.html#reflection-reflection"><span class="std std-ref">reflection API</span></a>, predicates
from an included file can be distinguished from predicates from the main
file by looking for the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">include/1</span></code> predicate declaration property or
the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">include/1</span></code> predicate definition property. For the included predicates,
the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">line_count/1</span></code> property stores the term line number in the included file.</p>
<p>This directive can be used as either a source file directive or an
entity directive. As an entity directive, it can be used both in
entities defined in source files and with the entity creation built-in
predicates. In the latter case, the file should be specified using an
absolute path or using library notation (which expands to a full path)
to avoid a fragile dependency on the current working directory.</p>
<p>Included files may contain an <a class="reference internal" href="encoding_1.html#directives-encoding-1"><span class="std std-ref">encoding/1</span></a> directive, which
may specify the same encoding of the main file or a different encoding.</p>
<div class="admonition warning">
<p class="admonition-title">Warning</p>
<p>When using this directive as an argument in calls to the
<a class="reference internal" href="../predicates/create_object_4.html#predicates-create-object-4"><span class="std std-ref">create_object/4</span></a>, <a class="reference internal" href="../predicates/create_category_4.html#predicates-create-category-4"><span class="std std-ref">create_category/4</span></a>,
and <a class="reference internal" href="../predicates/create_protocol_3.html#predicates-create-protocol-3"><span class="std std-ref">create_protocol/3</span></a> built-in predicates, the objects,
categories, and protocols will not be recreated or redefined when the
included file(s) are modified and the <a class="reference internal" href="../predicates/logtalk_make_0.html#predicates-logtalk-make-0"><span class="std std-ref">logtalk_make/0</span></a>
predicate or the <a class="reference internal" href="../predicates/logtalk_make_1.html#predicates-logtalk-make-1"><span class="std std-ref">logtalk_make/1</span></a> (with target <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">all</span></code>)
predicates are called.</p>
</div>
</section>
<section id="template-and-modes">
<h2>Template and modes<a class="headerlink" href="#template-and-modes" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<div class="highlight-logtalk notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>include(<span class="o">@</span>source_file_name)
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="examples">
<h2>Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#examples" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<div class="highlight-logtalk notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="c">% include the &quot;raw_1.txt&quot; text file found</span>
<span class="c">% on the &quot;data&quot; library directory:</span>
<span class="p">:- </span><span class="k">include</span>(data(<span class="s">&#39;raw_1.txt&#39;</span>)).

<span class="c">% include a &quot;factbase.pl&quot; file in the same directory</span>
<span class="c">% of the source file containing the directive:</span>
<span class="p">:- </span><span class="k">include</span>(<span class="s">&#39;factbase.pl&#39;</span>).

<span class="c">% include a file given its absolute path:</span>
<span class="p">:- </span><span class="k">include</span>(<span class="s">&#39;/home/me/databases/countries.pl&#39;</span>).

<span class="c">% create a wrapper object for a Prolog file using</span>
<span class="c">% library notation to define the file path:</span>
| <span class="o">?-</span> <span class="k">create_object</span>(cities, [], [public(city<span class="o">/</span><span class="m">4</span>), include(geo(<span class="s">&#39;cities.pl&#39;</span>))], []).
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
</section>


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